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Ob io. G** er*) assembly. 


RESOLUTIONS 

OF THANKS TO 

MAJOR GENERAL ROSECRANS, 

WITH 

GENERAL ROSECRANS’ REPLY; 


AND THE 


ADDRESS OF THE OHIO SOLDIERS TO THE PEOPLE OF OHIO; 


TOGETHER WITH 


THE CORRESPONDENCE CONNECTED THEREWITH. 


COLUMBUS: 

RICHARD N EYINS, STATE PRINTER. 
1863 . 



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Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Ohio, That twenty-five 
thousand copies of the resolution of thanks of this General Assembly to Major-General 
Eosecrans, with the correspondence of the Governor, and the reply of GeneraLEosecrans 
thereto, and the Address of the Ohio soldiers, with the correspondence connected there¬ 
with, be printed for the use of the members of the General Assembly. 

JAMES E. HUBBELL, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

B. STANTON, 

President of the Senate. 

April —, 1863. 

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CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE STATE OF OHIO, 

Executive Department, 

Columbus, January 20 th, 1863. 

Major-General Rosecrans : 

Dear General ,—In transmitting to you the accompanying Resolutions of our Gen¬ 
eral Assembly—of thanks to the surviving, and of sympathy to the families of the 
patriot dead, of your command, for your and their victorious bravery in the recent 
great battle before Murfreesboro, I cannot but express to you the high admiration I 
entertain for the brilliant generalship and cool courage manifested by you on that most 
discouraging and desperate battle-field, and also my high appreciation of the great 
gallantry of your command. 

God grant that the success thus far attending you in the brilliant series of battles 
of Iuka, Corinth and Murfreesboro, may attend yon and your noble command, until 
this unholy rebellion shall be utterly and forever crushed. 

Very truly yours, 

DAVID TOD. 


RESOLUTIONS 

Relative to a vote of thanks to Major-General Rosecrans. 

Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio , That the thanks of tys 
General Assembly are hereby tendered to Major-General Rosecrans, staff, officers, and 
the brave men under their commands, for the glorious victory resulting in the capture 
of Murfreesboro, and defeat of the rebel forces at that place. 

Resolved , That the sympathies of the General Assembly are extended to the 
families of the brave and noble patriots that have fallen in defense of Freedom and,. 
Constitutional Liberty, and that their memories will ever be cherished by a grateful 
people. 

Resolved , That the Governor be requested to forward a copy of the foregoing reso¬ 
lutions to General Rosecrans, with the request that they be read to his command. 

JAMES R. HUBBELL, 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

P. HITCHCOCK, 

President pro tem. of the Senate . 


January 14, 1863. 



4 


THE STATE OF OHIO, 

Executive Department, 

Columbus, February 10 th, 1863. 


To the Speaker of the House of Representatives: 

Herewith I communicate a letter from Major-General Rosecrans, acknowledging 
the receipt of jour resolution of thanks, 

And have the honor to be, 

Respectfully yours, 

DAVID TOD, Governor. 


Letter from General Rosecrans. 

Head-quarters, Department of the Cumberland, 
Murfreesboro, Tenn., February 3, 1863. 

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the State of Ohio: 

The resolution of thanks passed by your honorable body to the Army of the Cum¬ 
berland, its Commanding General and his staff, has been duly received and published 
to the troops of this command. On behalf of all, I return you heartfelt thanks. 

This is indeed a war for the Constitution and the laws—nay, for National existence 
—against those who have despised our honest friendship, deceived our just hopes, and 
driven us to defend our country and our homes. By foul and willful slanders on our 
motives and intentions, persistently repeated, they have arrayed against us our own 
fellow-citizens, bound to us by the triple ties of consanguinity, geographical position, 
and commercial interest. 

Let no man amongst us be base enough to forget this, or fool enough to trust an 
oligarchy of traitors to their friends, to civil liberty, and human freedom. Voluntary 
exiles from home and friends, for the defense and safety of all, we long for the time 
when gentle peace shall again spread her wings over our land; but we know no such 
blessing is possible while the unjust and arbitrary power of the rebel leaders confronts 
and threatens us. 

Crafty as the fox, cruel as the tiger, they cried “ No coercion/’ while preparing to 
strike us. Bully-like, they proposed to fight us, because they said they could whip 
five to one ; and now when driven back, they whine out, “No invasion,” and promise 
us of the West permission to navigate the Mississippi, if we will be “ good boys ” and 
do as they bid us. 

Wherever they have the power, they drive before them into their ranks the Southern 
people, and they would also drive us. Trust them not; were they able, they would 
invade and destroy us without mercy. Absolutely assured of these things, I am 
amazed that any one could think of “ peace on any terms.” 

He who entertains the sentiment is fit only to be a slave; he who utters it at this 
time is, moreover, a traitor to his country, who deserves the scorn and contempt of all 
honorable men. When the power of the unscrupulous rebel leaders is removed, and 
the people are free to consider and act for their own interests, which are common with 
ours under this Government, there will be no great difficulty in fraternization. Be¬ 
tween our tastes and social life there are fewer differences than between those of the 
people of the northern and southern provinces of England or Ireland. 

Hoping the time may speedily come when the power of the perfidious and cruel 
tyrant of this rebellion, having been overthrown, a peace may be laid on the broad 
foundations of National Unity and Equal Justice to all, under the Constitution and 
the Laws, 

I remain, your fellow-citizen, 

W. S. ROSECRANS, Maj.-Genl 


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5 


The State of Ohio, Executive Department, 
Columbus, March 14th, 1863. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives : 

The soldiers from Ohio, in the Western Army, alive to the best interests of our 
State and people, have seen proper to send back an Address to those they left behind, 
which they wish me, through you, to communicate to our common constituents. 

The address and letter accompanying the same are herewith submitted. Most 
heartily endorsing the sentiments and action of the brave men who thus speak to us, I 
respectfully recommend that both the letter and address be spread upon your Journals 
and published to the world. 

Very respectfully, 

DAVID TOD, Governor. 


ADDRESS OF THE OHIO SOLDIERS OF THE WESTERN ARMY TO 
THE PEOPLE OF OHIO. 

The Battle Field of Stone River, 
February 1st, 1863. 

To the People of Ohio: 

The Ohio Soldiers of the Western Army, your Friends, Brothers and Sons, address 
you from this field of renown, in urgent entreaty, upon matters of such grave import 
to them and to the country, as to demand your calm and patient audience. Exiles 
from home for long weary months, away from the petty strife of local politics and the 
influence of selfish demagogues and party leaders, with the pure and steadfast faith in 
the holy cause of defending our Government which brought us into the field, and has 
sustained us in perils, hardships, toils and exposures, which have scarcely a parallel 
in history, we feel none of the acrimonious bitterness that now enters into the ignoble 
contentions of home politics, and calmly view the condition of the country from that 
only true stand-point, the Soldier’s and Patriot’s devotion to the Great Republic— 
once blessed of all nations. 

We ask, what means this wild, shameless party strife at home ? Why any opposi¬ 
tion to this war of self-preservation ? Why any but political demagogues should wish 
a severance of the Republic ? Wherefore a foolish cry for a cessation of hostilities on 
our part, to give time to the traitor rebels to strengthen their defenses and discipline 
their armies ? Why should the brave, true men of the great army of the United 
States, war-broken, toil-worn and battle-stained, be left without sympathy or aid from 
you, men of Ohio, now enjoying the blessings of peace, careless of dangers of invasion 
and war’s dread terrors, only because we, your brothers and sons, .stand “between 
your loved homes and war’s desolation?” 

Are we not in war ? Is not the whole force of the Government employed in defend¬ 
ing the nation against a gigantic effort to destroy it ? Has not blood flowed like water, 
and treasure expended enough to make rich a nation ? Is is not worth preserving ? 
Can two or more States be carved out peacefully from the present loved Republic ? 
Can we give away its rivers, lands and loyal people to its destroyers ? Can we afford 
to divide the Republic into contending petty States, and be forever the victims of 
internecine wars between small principalities? Can we quietly, calmly, even com¬ 
placently, sit by and see the grand Republic of the world thus cut off and destroyed 
by innate weakness ? No honest citizen of Ohio is willing that such should be our 
fate. 

What matters now the cause of the war ? by whose fault, or by the adoption of 
what mistaken policy ? It exists ! It must be fought out, or ended by giving up all 



6 


that it is waged for. For the sake of peace—to he rid of the burdens of taxation— 
for fear of the sheddiDg of blood—would any basely give up his nation and become 
the citizen of a ruined and dishonored land ? 

Then wherefore opposition to the war ? Because a particular party is in power ? 
because its policy is obnoxious? because it has committed errors? because it has 
thrown to its surface and given prominence to bad or incompetent men ? or adopted 
political theories and sought to make them practical, which are condemned by many 
good men ? No ! the remedy for all these evils, if they exist at all, may be sought in 
the quiet but powerful means of the ballot, which has power in our Government to 
change dynasties, where the armies of the world would fail. 

Is it thought that peace and a voluntary restoration of the Union may be effected by 
compromise ? All that has been tried. Disdainfully, the rebels flung back in our 
faces every proffered olive branch, before peaceful men became armed soldiers, and the 
booming of Fort Sumter’s cannon, with its terrible alarum, called a nation to arms. 
And now, insolent and defiant, they laugh to scorn all thoughts of peace on any other 
terms than recognition of their false nationality. They are stronger now than then. 
The despots and money-changers of Europe have given them substantial aid to destroy 
a Bepublic; they have more powerful armies, abler generals, and a firmer determina¬ 
tion than when the rebellion began. They know their strength and appeal to it— 
not to the poor demagogues of the North, who are their allies. They condemn and 
despise them. Read their proclamations, addresses, army orders and newspapers. 
At no time have they ever spoken of Northern friends except as allies in the war ! 
They deride the foolish appeals of their Northern allies for peace and compromise, and 
preclude all hope of the restoration of the Union on any terms. 

What incalculable mischief is being done by these Northern Allies ! Their 
speeches and newspapers are quoted, and results of elections reported in Southern 
papers, as evidence, not of any hope of restoring the Union, but to show that the loyal 
people of the North are becoming willing to submit to any dishonorable and humiliating 
terms of peace, based even on a fall recognition that this fiendish rebellion was right, 
and that it was well to destroy this Government. 

People of Ohio! But one allernative is left you. You must pronounce 
this a just rebellion.; you must say that it was right and justifiable to 
destroy this Republic; that a Republic is a weak, helpless Government, 
powerless to sustain itself, and to be destroyed whenever conspirators 

ENOUGH CAN BE ALLIED FOR THE PURPOSE ; OR, YOU MUST SHOW TO THE WORLD 

the power of self-preservation in the great example of Confederated Republics. That 
it has a quiet dormant force, which aroused, has gigantic strength and energy. That 
it not only can protect its citizens in all of their rights and privileges, but can sustain 
itself as well against foreign attack, as internal treason. 

We are fighting for the Republic; to it we have given our hearts, our arms, our lives. 
We intend to stand between you and the desolating hosts of the rebels, whose most 
cherished hope and desire has been and is, to take possession of and ravage your own 
beautiful Ohio. Once already we have stood as a living wall between you and this 
fate, and we may have to do it again. 

Men of Ohio ! You know not what this Western Army has suffered. You know 
not now the hardships and sufferings of your soldiers in their chill tents, their shelter¬ 
less bivouacs, their long, weary marches, and their battle-thinned ranks. If there be 
honesty and purity in human motives, it must be found among your long-enduring 
soldiers. Hear us, and for your Country’s sake if not for ours, stop your wild, shame¬ 
less, political strifes; unite for the common cause, and never think or speak of peace 
and compromise until the now empty terms mean, The Republic as it was, peacefully 
if it may be, but forcibly at all events. It is said, war and force cannot restore the 
Union ! What can ? 

Is there anything else that has been left untried, short of national dishonor and 
shame ? Nothing. Purely physical power has been invoked to destroy the Govern- 


7 


ment, and physical force must meet it. Conquer the rebellious armies, shut in by 
blockades and victorious armies the deluded people of the rebelling States, and let no 
peace, no happiness, no prosperity dwell in their land or homes, until they rise against 
their own tyrants—until popular opinion with them, overthrows their false Govern¬ 
ment, and dooms their despotic leaders. Whip them and confine them, until “Actaeon 
is devoured by his own dogs.” 

This is all that can be done, and it must be done with the determined energy of a 
united people. Thus feel and think the soldiers of the Grand Army of the United 
States. Are you with us, or will you now desert us, sell your national birthright for 
a mess of pottage, and for success in local politics, barter away your country—crawl 
at the feet and lick the hands of the perfidious, cruel and devilish conspirators, who 
have organized this rebellion, and who boast of their success in destroying your Gov¬ 
ernment, slaying your sons, and wasting your treasure—contemned, derided and 
despised by them, while you are humbly craving their favor? Not waiting or even 
hoping for returning loyalty in them, or for terms of peace to be tendered by them? 
Can you thus dishonor yourselves, your soldiers, and your State ? 

We ask you now to stay, support and uphold the hands of your soldiers. 

Give some of the wasted sympathy so illy but freely bestowed upon the old political 
hacks and demagogues who seek a blessed martyrdom in Lincoln Bastiles, to the 
suffering but bravely-enduring soldiers who in the camp, the field and the hospital, 
bear real hardships uncomplainingly. If treason must run riot in the North, keep it 
there; insult not your soldiers by sending to them the vile emanations of the traitors 
who are riding into office, place and power, over the ruins of the Government, and 
making them their stepping-stones. Insult us not by letters, speeches and papers, 
which tell us that we are engaged as hirelings in an unholy abolition war—which make 
mob idols of the hour of those whose hypocritical demagoguery takes shape in cowardly, 
covert treason—whose constant vocation is denunciation of their Government and its 
armed defenders. 

The Army of the West is in terrible earnest—earnest to conquer and destroy armed 
rebels—earnest to meet force with force—earnest in its hearty detestation of cowardly 
traitors at home—earnest in will and power to overcome all who desire the nation’s 
ruin. 

Ohio’s 100,000 soldiers in the field, citizens at home, potent in either capacity, ask 
their fathers, brethren and friends, by their firesides, and in their peaceful homes, to 
hear and heed this appeal, and to put an end to covert treason at home, more danger¬ 
ous now to our national existence than the presence of the armed hosts of misguided 
rebels in the field. 

On the hearing and adoption of this Address by the 1st Brigade, 3d Division, 14th 
Army Corps, Col. Walker also reported the following resolution, which was unani¬ 
mously adopted: 

Therefore, Resolved, For ourselves, we are resolved to maintain the honor and integrity 
of our Government; from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and between the Oceans, there 
shall be but one supreme political power. We are able to defend our birthright; the 
blood of our sires is not contaminated in our veins; we are neither to be insulted, nor 
robbed with impunity; the Government we defend was formed for noble purposes; we are 
the executors of a living, a dying testament, written in the blood of our fathers, which we 
will re-write in our own; to preserve our Government, is to us a law, unalterable in our 
hearts as the decrees of Heaven; we stop not now to point the finger of scorn at petty 
traitors who vainly seek to immortalize themselves by acts of treason—too cowardly to 
sin with an uplifted hand, too dastardly to stake life for life, as more honorable traitors 
do—let them bear in mind that there is a time coming when the honest indignation of a 
loyal people will hurl them headlong into an abyss as bottomless as the pit. 


8 


In Camp, near Murfreesboro, Tenn., 
Feb. 24th, 1863. 

To His Excellency David Tod, Governor of Ohio: 

It has been deemed proper to send to you, as Governor of Ohio, the inclosed ad¬ 
dress of the Ohio soldiers, that through you the same may be formally presented to 
the people and Legislature of Ohio. To that end, at a meeting of officers of several 
of the regiments, held on the 10th inst., we were appointed a committee to visit the 
Ohio regiments in this department, and ascertain how many had approved the same, 
and report to you the address and resolution, and also the regiments that have given 
their approval to the sentiments of the same. 

Our army is scattered over a large extent of territory, and hence we have not 
yet reached all, but have the pleasure of announcing to you that the following regi¬ 
ments have adopted the address and resolution, and given them their approval: 

1st, 3d, 6th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 14th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st, 24th, 26th, 31st, 33d, 
35th, 38th, 41st, 52d, 64th, 65th, 69th, 74th,. 90th, 93d, 94th, 97th, 99th, 101st, 
105th Infantry, 1st, 3d, and 4th Ohio Cavalry, and 1st Ohio Battery. 

And we have such assurances that we feel positive in saying, that the others (only 
five, now here) will adopt the same as soon as the same reach the other regiments. 

The address and resolution have been cheerfully and enthusiastically and unani¬ 
mously adopted wherever a vote has been had. 

The Ohio regiments in this department are with and for the Government in puttiug 
down this rebellion. 

We are, Governor, 

Respectfully, 

Your obedient servants, 

Capt. J. W. STINCHCOMB, 

Co. B, 17th O. Y. I., Chairman. 

WM. A. CHOATE, 

Lieut. Col., 38th Reg., O. Y. I. 

WM. H. FREE, 

Capt., Co. D, 31st O. Y. I. 
Committee of Publication. 






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